From the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, Theta Theta Omega Chapter Records (MS-01014) -- Chapter records file.

On March 8, 1975, Beatrice Scheid interviewed Mary and Bruce Eaton about their lives in Boulder City, Nevada. Mary first talks about her life in the early days of Boulder City, specifically the influences of the churches and schools. She also talks about housing, transportation, and her career as an educator. Bruce (born 1904 in Toronto, Kansas) also talks about his life in Boulder City and his arrival to Southern Nevada as he sought employment in working on the building of Hoover Dam. Bruce talks about his employment with Six Companies, Inc. and discusses topics such as the employment wages, his and Mary’s experiences in building a house, and their experiences in buying a house built by Six Companies. Bruce also talks about the roles of Sims Ely, the city manager of Boulder City, and Frank Crowe, the construction superintendent of Six Companies. Bruce then discusses the issues of worker’s compensation as it related to work on the dam, and he describes, in detail, the cooling system us

“At five years old, I was the youngest boy at the orphanage. This was the first time that I had lived with indoor plumbing and indoor showers.” To describe award-winning home builder Larry Canarelli as a self-made man is to grossly understate his accomplishments and his determination. Canarelli, founder of American West, Nevada’s largest privately owned development company, learned all about living without shelter as a very young boy. When he was nine years old, Canarelli, the second of his mother’s six children, encouraged his veteran stepfather to buy the family’s first permanent house for $80 down and an agreement to assume payments on the Veterans Administration loan. As his school peers dreamt of large, shiny cars, Canarelli envisaged big, beautiful houses. After self-funding his education, graduating from the University of California Los Angeles, completing two years of U.S. Army service, and earning his Master’s degree from University of Southern California, Canarelli began his career working with a large home building firm in the Los Angeles area. Three years later he switched firms, and the new company sent him to Las Vegas. In this interview, Canarelli reaches back to his childhood to explain his motivation to build houses: “All of my life, I had an interest in housing. Perhaps this is because of never having a house when I was younger.” He recalls how the Collins Brothers helped him when he founded American West. He describes the Southern Nevada “shelter market” of the 1970s and follows its evolution in style and marketing through the 1980s and 1990s; he talks about master planning and the builders who first master planned their Clark County developments: Pardee Homes in Spring Valley, American Nevada in Green Valley, and Howard Hughes Corporation in Summerlin. He speaks to the influences of interest rates and available land on housing prices; the importance of environmentally responsible housing; where the entry-level housing market will go, and ways that technology has changed home building and home buying. And throughout, he exemplifies his devotion to, knowledge of, and respect for Southern Nevada’s housing industry-its builders, its market, and its buyers.